Daily Telegraph Cryptic No 29179
Hints and tips by Deep Threat
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BD Rating – Difficulty ** – Enjoyment ***
Good morning from South Staffs on an autumnal day.
I found this one of Giovanni’s more gentle puzzles, with plenty of anagrams or part-anagrams to speed things up.
In the hints below, the definitions are underlined. The answers are hidden under the ANSWER buttons, so don’t click if you don’t want to see them.
Please leave a comment telling us what you thought.
Across
1a & 3a Chief’s not tense — with new order needed, won’t make decision (4,2,3,5)
SITS ON THE FENCE – Anagram (new order needed) of CHIEF’S NOT TENSE
3a See 1 Across
9a Has grown somewhat, but not to maximum extent (4)
OWNS – Hidden in the clue.
10a A wood easily cut up, not one proving awkward (10)
EUCALYPTUS – Anagram (proving awkward) of EAS(i)LY CUT UP, without the Roman numeral for one.
11a Drawings — a hundred by artist, that initiator of surrealism (7)
CRAYONS – Put together the Roman numeral for a hundred, the usual crossword artist, an old word for ‘that’, and the first letter (initiator) of Surrealism.
13a Looking after the final bit, putting time to it (7)
TENDING – Time followed by the final bit of a book or film.
14a Opposes board going by the book (11)
COUNTERACTS – The sort of board that a shopkeeper stands behind, followed by one of the books of the New Testament.
18a Iron Madame with big drink seen as a dangerous woman (5,6)
FEMME FATALE – Put together the chemical symbol for iron, the abbreviation for Madame, ‘big’ or ‘overweight’, and some beer.
21a Soon to be given new role in engineering (7)
ERELONG – Anagram (new) of ROLE with an abbreviation for ‘engineering’ wrapped around it. More commonly seen split into two words (3,4), but the BRB does have the single word version as an alternative.
22a Dafter chief about to start row (7)
POTTIER – Reverse (about) the position of a chief in a hierarchy, then add a row of seats.
23a Bend and creak awkwardly around area in jerky movement (5-5)
BREAK-DANCE – Anagram (awkwardly) of BEND and CREAK, with Area inserted.
24a See 26 Across
25a Mega-Tory — he worked out principles designed to bring success (4,6)
GAME THEORY – Anagram (worked out) of MEGA-TORY HE.
26a & 24a A deed, say, that’s tricky or very simple (4,4)
DEAD EASY – Anagram (tricky) of A DEED SAY.
Down
1d Work about to take place in store — a bit of plumbing (8)
STOPCOCK – A store of materials or trade goods wrapped around the Latin abbreviations for a musical work and ‘about’ or ‘approximately’.
2d Element important, aluminium? Find it in here (8)
TANTALUM – Hidden in the clue.
4d Words from religious women conveying love (5)
NOUNS – Some holy women wrapped around the letter which looks like a love score at tennis.
5d To listen to terrible cheat brings grief (9)
HEARTACHE – Another word for ‘listen to, followed by an anagram (terrible) of CHEAT.
6d Getting both feet off the ground in initial movement? (6,5)
FLYING START – Cryptic definition of a fast beginning to something which, taken literally, would involve being up in the air.
7d Name given to one fool? Yes! (6)
NITWIT – An all-in-one clue, where the wordplay is also the definition. Put together an abbreviation for Name, the Roman numeral for one, and another word for a fool, to get yet another word for a fool.
8d Standard set by US officer (6)
ENSIGN – Double definition, the second being a junior officer, whose task historically was to carry or guard the first definition.
12d Having lost money fallen through hole in trousers? (3,2,6)
OUT OF POCKET – A hole in the part of trousers where money may be kept could cause you to be — — —— .
15d Sort of rapid movement — a tiger about to move to new territory again (9)
REMIGRATE – A three-letter acronym for a sort of movement which happens during one of the phases of sleep, followed by an anagram (about) of A TIGER.
16d Get soaked in the sea with total immersion for a time (8)
MARINATE – Put together A (from the clue) and Time, then insert the result into a word for ‘in or of the sea’.
17d Bore the cost of action involving conflict (8)
DEFRAYED – Another word for an action wrapped around another word for conflict or fighting.
19d One going to pot, getting into hot water? (3,3)
TEA BAG – Cryptic definition of something commonly used to make a hot drink.
20d Think again, presumably, and save (6)
REDEEM – The usual prefix for ‘doing it again’ followed by ‘think’ or ‘judge’.
22d Publicity about star horse not very good? (5)
PACER – The two-letter acronym for publicity wrapped around a star sportsman or fighter pilot, giving us a horse with a particular gait, apparently one which is regarded as inferior for riding, though the BRB does not mention this.
The Quick Crossword pun PACKAGED + HEELS = PACKAGE DEALS
I agree with our blogger about the relative easiness of this one. I particularly liked 14a and 12d. No obscurities to slow anyone up I would have thought.
Many thanks to The Don and DT.
No obscurities? Well, if your Chemistry ‘O’ level covered 2d, you had a better teacher than I did.
And as if to prove my point, this report just in from my old alma mater!
https://www.manchestereveningnews.co.uk/news/greater-manchester-news/manchester-grammar-pupils-taken-hospital-17071343
I did A level chemistry with a brilliant teacher. But that is beside the point. The fact that the answer was a lurker made it much more gettable than having to use wordplay. I concede the word is perhaps not in regular use, but the answer was easy to get being contained within the clue.
My chemistry was also sadly lacking. The fact that it was a lurker didn’t help me at all, never having heard of it I couldn’t recognise the word.
3*/3*. This was a puzzle of two halves for me in terms of difficulty – the bottom half went in smoothly (1.5* time pro rata), and the top half in contrast proved to be very challenging (4*). The good news is that I found it more enjoyable than recent Fridays with 19d raising a smile and joining 14a & 12d on my podium.
I didn’t know that 11a could mean drawings as well as what you use to create them, but a visit to my BRB put me wise on that.
Many thanks to Giovanni and to DT.
Sorry to disagree but I found parts of this tricky. Certainly a typical Giovanni with obscure words in 2d and 15d but always fair and solvable by the elegant wordplay. My last in was 16d as I always struggle when all the checking letters are vowels, probably a deliberate setters ploy (using vowels not making me struggle!). All in all very enjoyable.
Thx to all
***/****
More good fun on Friday. For me the top half, with the exception of 11a, presented few problems but the lower section was just nicely testing. My two smiley Favs were 12d and 19d. Thank you Giovanni and DT.
Favourites 12D & 19D . SE corner last to complete .
Overall a mixture of clues but “ variety is the spice of life” .
Hope the rugby in Japan is sensibly resolved . Too much to hope likewise for Brexit .
Thanks DT and well done Giovanni.
Like Brian I found some parts tricky and a ***/*** for me.
Took a while to parse the last four letters of 15a, my favourite for the surface., also liked 16d.
An excellent puzzle for a Friday, thanks to DT for the explanation of 4d-I thought it was just the horse setting the pace which horse soon tired and was not good enough to win it.
Like Rabbit Dave, I found the top half of this puzzle quite challenging. Some of the clues seemed to be less sharp and defined than usual (or perhaps it was just me), so I just tipped over into *** time in terms of difficulty and would agree with DT on *** for enjoyment. My favourite clues were the anagram at 10a and 18a. Many thanks to DT for the hints and to Giovanni.
I too thought it gentle but enjoyable. Thanks to Giovanni and DT
For reasons I don’t really understand I had real problems with 16d (although I prefer the spelling with D as the last but one letter) and 19d. Elsewhere, no significant problems but the aforementioned two slowed me down to a fast canter and impacted the overall enjoyment – 2.5*/3*.
Favourite – a toss-up between 18a and 1d – and the winner is 18a.
Thanks to Giovanni and DT.
Re 16d, I always think the correct (as given here) answer is the verb (what you do with the food item) and the one with D in it is the noun ( what you immerse it in). I wonder what other people think?
As I make a lot of use of a griddle, I’m fond of this technique.
Well, those fine folks at Chambers would have us think that the ‘D’ version can be a verb or a noun.
My preference for the ‘D’ version must come from my French ancestry as an on-line search suggests that it comes from the 17th century Provençal marinado.
A marinade (noun) is the flavoured sauce mix and “to marinade” or marinate is the verb – the process of soaking food in a sauce mix for a period before cooking to permeate and develop a special flavour.
Held up in the Home Counties as I managed to put the answers to 24a and 26a the wrong way round!
Not keen on the solutions to 15d and 16d.
I struggled which way round 24a and 26a should go, in the end I waited to get a checking letter.
Exactly what I did 😃
I always seem to get on well with Giovanni’s puzzles and would agree with DT’s rating of this one. Last one in was 17d. No particular clue grabs my favouritism today. Thanks to Giovanni and of course to DT for the hints.
Aaaaaggggghhhhhh. I wrote the 24/26 across combination the wrong way round, making 16 and 19 down impossible! There I was cursing Giovanni and it was all down to me. Grrrrrr.
Thanks all…..
I did the same with 26 and 24a, you are not alone!
A nice puzzle from G, just above average difficulty with good clues providing a pleasant solve. Fav: 11a. 3* / 3.5*
Thanks to Giovanni and to Deep Threat for the review and hints. I enjoyed this one very much, a good mix of clues, nothing too obscure, plenty of humour. Quite on the gentle side, I liked 4d&7d, the latter seemed familiar. Last in was 16d. Favourite was 26&24a. Was 2*/4* for me.
As Senf, I had real problems with 16 and 19d.
Had to check the existence of 21a and 15d. Both rather awful words IMHO.
Thanks to the Don and to DT for the review.
Autumn hasn’t reached my part of the world yet. Lowest temperature at night is around 16 degrees Celsius and up to 25 during the day. Rain forecast for Saturday 19th….hopefully. That would make it the 5th day of rain in 7 months.
A very pleasant offering from Giovanni and a decent challenge. Lots to like among which 11a, 16a, 7d, 20d which top spot awarded to 14a.
Good fun on yet another wet day in the Principality.
Am I the only one who didn’t pay attention to the order of 26 and 24 across which made nonsense of 16d????
I too had 24 and 26 the wrong way around at first. I normally find Friday puzzles fairly smooth going but not today. Looking at the comments above I think it must be me. I also found the quickie tricky today. Think I need an early night!
Thanks to all.
Popped in to see where “to start” featured in the answer to 22d and to find out why 8d was what it was. so thank you, DT, for providing the answer to my second problem but can anyone help me with the first? Gratitude to The Don for presenting me with an easier cryptic than the quickie this week, and to Deep Threat for unravelling.
I think you mean 22a not 22d. “To start” here just means “comes before” or precedes – so the reversed chief precedes the row.
Thank you ♥️
I solved the 1a/3a combo on reading the clue and thought I was in for an easy ride, but no, I found some of it pretty tricky. I ended in the NW corner, I had the wrong drawings at 11a, putting “cartoons”. I had quite a few bung ins, so just thought it was me not seeing it. Natch, never solved 2d.
My fave was 18a, but 19d was smile worthy as well.
Thanks to Giovanni and to Deep Threat for unravelling quite a few!
Missed the lurker at 2d and needed the hint for 16d, so a bit of a struggle for me today.
Thanks to the setter and to Deep Threat
A fairly relaxed solve considering it’s a Friday! Once I realised ‘cartoos’ could not be the answer to 11a everything seemed to fall into place.
4d was my favourite.
Thanks to Giovanni, and to Deep Throat for the review.
Deep throat 😂
Ha ha!!
Lower half went in fairly quickly, Upper half was more stubborn, but all went in eventually. Same again, just answer the question/clue & you get the results.
2.5*/4*
Thanks to Giovanni for Friday fun & DT for his review & direction
A bit of extra work needed in the SE, mainly because we wanted to put SALINATE in for 16d with the definition being ‘get soaked in the sea’. Wordplay doesn’t quite work though.
Pleasant solve.
Thanks Giovanni and DT.
Big thanks to Giovanni for a puzzle that actually made sense and which did not frustrate me to the point of abandonment. Started off great, then got stuck in the weeds, so thanks also to Deep Threat. Such a relief after a few days of Toughies were presented as Cryptics (IMHO). Very much enjoyed and hoping for more like this.
I’m with the “I found it tricky brigade” not helped by watching England play dismally whilst trying to do the crossword at the same time. But hey ho it’s a Friday. For those interested and reading my “old boy” is staging a remarkable comeback from his stroke a fortnight ago. His head is almost level, as opposed to being at 45 degrees and he’s trying to run about. Thanks to all involved.
I just couldn’t do this one at all. Struggled all evening and managed probably less than half before consulting the hints. So thanks to DT for those and to DG.
Is it just me? 21a and 20d totally foxed me. The first one I’ve failed to complete in ages. 12d made me smile. Ta to all.
3*/3*….
liked 12D “having lost money fallen through hole in trousers? (3,2,6)”